8/25 – Concert Recap

This week, Rush Hour presented its 10th season finale concert event: Percussion Panache. Third Coast Percussion artists Owen Clayton Condon, Robert Dillon, Peter Martin, and David Skidmore provided a thrilling final performance featuring an impressive array of percussion instruments. Following the concert, Third Coast treated concertgoers to a hands-on tour of the instruments.

Third Coast Percussion warming up on the marimbas

Peter Martin chats with an audience member before the concert

Executive Director Megan Balderston, Artistic Director Deborah Sobol, and Managing Director Julie Hutchison

The lights dim on the 10th season at Rush Hour

Thoughts from the Executive Director & Artistic Director: Time Flies When You’re Having Fun

I usually like to tie my writing together with neat bows, observations, and interesting anecdotes. Today, however, I wish only to thank you all for a wonderful season and your intense generosity over the month of August.

Just as Chicago traffic has two seasons, winter and construction, so do we have two seasons: production and planning. Being able to go into planning season secure in the support of our audience helps us to program concerts around artistic goals, rather than solely under the constraint of “can we afford it?” The 2009 season was a testament to the power of planning a season with the best artists and programs in mind. We thank you all for your role in bringing beautiful music into our lives, and look forward to seeing you again next summer.

- Megan Balderston
Executive Director

People say time flies when you’re having fun. This year has gone by faster than any of the previous ten! Thank you to ALL of you – audience, volunteers, staff, board, and supporters – for making this year so memorable. Artists new to Rush Hour this year have asked to be invited back again, so impressed were they with what they now call “the Rush Hour experience.” I am already very excited about the programming for next season, which will hold 14 concerts. The CSO cellists and friends are cooking up another multi-cello concert for June; Fifth House will be back with its exuberant energy; Trio Voce, the dynamic piano trio who brought us Ravel’s Piano Trio a few weeks ago, will be with us again; the Lincoln String Quartet will be joined by two guests in Brahms’ magnificent Sextet, Op. 18, No. 1. As always, we will have a combination of “cornerstone chamber music works” next to a few unknown works, unusual instrumental combinations, new music and…yes, even a bit of whimsy! And, of course, we will continue to aim to inspire and uplift you in your busy lives.

The “winter music season” will be starting up soon in our great city. There are brochures available here today of several wonderful series that I recommend to you to keep your appetites for great live music fed in our off-season. But we won’t go away completely: please visit us online here at rushhour.org and sign up for our e-newsletter that comes out regularly throughout the fall, winter and spring, with lots of interesting articles, news of RH off-season events, and my recommendations for good listening adventures around town. Thank you for a great summer!

When the ice and snow make their season visit to Chicago this year, just sit back and remember Tuesdays at St. James Cathedral: the light, the camaraderie, the receptions, and the music. It will be here soon again!

- Deborah Sobol
Artistic Director

8/19 – Concert Recap

This week, Rush Hour presented “ORGAN 102: Fantasies, Preludes, and Fugues of J.S. Bach,” featuring organist Bruce J. Barber II, St. James’ Director of Cathedral Music. A live video feed of the performance performance was projected onto a screen on the stage, making the organist visible to the audience from his position in the music gallery. Cameras filmed Mr. Barber’s hands and feet, displaying the incredible skill and dexterity required to play the organ.

Special thanks to the Consulate General of the Federal Republic of Germany in Chicago for their sponsorship in part of Tuesday’s concert event.

Bruce J. Barber II rehearsing for Tuesday’s performance

The foot pedals of the organ: a keyboard that is played with the feet and volume pedals

An audience member browses the information provided by the Consulate General of the Federal Republic of Germany in Chicago, a sponsor of today’s concert

Organist Bruce Barber addresses a group of audience members during the post-concert organ tour

Exactly What Is an Organ…and How Does it Work?

[Before Tuesday, August 18th's organ concert, we offer a repeat of organist Bruce Barber's excellent "behind the scenes" tour of the organ. If you're attending Tuesday's concert, don't miss the live tour immediately following the concert! - Julie Hutchison, Managing Director]

Organists are often asked these two simple questions . . . the answer, however, is both simple and complicated! I offer you my best shot at answering clearly and simply!

What is an organ? The very first organs were winded through the use of moving water and were popular in Greek civilization to provide a “drone” (like the drones of the bagpipe) as background for entertainment instruments and singing. In settings more closely associated with organs (i.e. churches), the instrument is thought to have made its first appearance as early as the 6th century. By that time, it had grown from its humble, water-winded system into a much larger instrument (still small by today’s standards) which was raucous in nature and whose function was principally to play during formal processions and, to a lesser extent, to accompany singing.

Towards the 13th century, the organ took on a much greater liturgical (sacred) role – offering support for chant and presenting specific music written for it (albeit geared towards the Mass). Because of the increasing importance being placed upon it, the organ also grew in size! It was winded by multiple bellows (often worked by multiple individuals); its palette of stops (collections of pipes of varying timbre and pitches) increased; and it became an increasingly important work of art in the life of both church and community.

By the 15th century in Germany, organs were being built with separate stops and keys for the feet – the pedalboard was born. The organ continued to develop into styles that reflected the national identity of the builder: e.g. Dutch organs sounded different from English organs, which sounded different from American organs, etc. These nationalistic styles were also heavily informed by composers for the organ as they pressed builders to create new and innovative sounds for the organ. Additionally, the organ began to appear in town halls, orchestra halls, and opera houses as composers included parts for it in their works: think of the heroic Symphony No. 3 of Camille Saint-Saëns or the stunning Concerto for Organ by Francis Poulenc, to name but a few.

How does it work? Well, first of all, an organ is basically a collection of very expensive whistles (pipes) of varying tonal colors that speak (make sound) when air blows through them. How the pipes are controlled from the keyboards (console) varies from builder to builder, but there are basically two ways for that “connection” to be made. Some organs are called “tracker organs” as they have an actual physical connection through levers, cables, and joints — all making up the tracker mechanism — which runs from each key to the base of each pipe, while other organs are called “electro-pneumatic organs” because that key to pipe connection is made NOT with trackers, but rather through electronic signal transmitted through a wiring system (and in some cases, involving a computer!)

For example, in Chicago, the organ in the balcony at Holy Name Cathedral is a tracker organ built by a Dutch builder (Flentrop), while the St. James’ organ is an electro-pneumatic organ built by American builders (Austin and E.M. Skinner — and a few others!) St. James has had an organ since the church was first built in 1837; over the years, it has been rebuilt and enlarged many times and currently consists of 99 ranks (collections of pipes) and over 5800 individual speaking pipes. Most notably, it incorporates the historic 1929 E.M. Skinner Organ originally built and installed in Chicago’s Lyric Opera House.

- Bruce J. Barber II
Director of Cathedral Music, St. James Cathedral

8/11 – Concert Recap

This week, Rush Hour presented “RAVISHING FRENCH.” Trio Voce’s Jasmine Lin, violin, Marina Hoover, cello, and Patricia Tao, piano, performed Maurice Ravel’s Trio in A minor for Violin, Cello, and Piano. The trio then surprised and delighted audience members with an encore, Astor Piazzolla’s lively tango, “Esquelo.”

Special thanks to the Consulate General of France in Chicago for their sponsorship in part of Tuesday’s concert event.

Cellist Marina Hoover, violinist Jasmine Lin, and pianist Patricia Tao record Episode 11 of podcast series “Rush Hour Conversations” with Artistic Director Deborah Sobol

Audience members enjoy the view from the overflow seating in the music gallery

Jasmine Lin, violin, and Marina Hoover, cello

Volunteer Margaret Isaacson (right) enjoys the reception with friends and family